It will take a big win for Tropang Giga to be on an equal footing with Gin Kings

Troy Rosario (right) finally finds his groove and the Tropang Giga finds his way around Japeth Aguilar and the Gin Kings. —PHOTOS COURTESY OF PBA IMAGES

There are a lot of folks at TNT who think they should be in control of the show if it weren’t for the big crash late.

They are just not insisting on it.

“You have to move fast,” Jayson Castro, TNT’s fast playmaker, told reporters shortly after Tropang Giga defeated Barangay Geneva, 88-67, in game three of the Philippines Cup Finals. the PBA on Friday night.

“We thought about it,” TNT coach Bong Ravena said, admitting that there were times when he allowed himself to think how drastically different things would have been if they had scored more than a single field goal in overtime in the Game 1. Or if they had made about half of the seven shots they missed in the last four minutes of Game 2.

“But we had to deal with the 0-2 [hole]. “

The deficit does not seem so overwhelming now. TNT cut Geneva’s lead in the series to 2-1, with a chance to tie the best of seven in Game 4 on Sunday at the Angeles University Foundation.

But saying that the Tropang Giga are just one step behind the Kings in the series could be quite difficult. After all, Geneva coach Tim Cone said there would be games like this in a series, when teams would dig as deep as they wanted and still be left empty.

“You only have one or two games where you just don’t have the energy. It would take a lot of effort to win the game before, or in this case, the previous two games, ”the two-time Grand Slam mentor told reporters here at Smart Clark Giga City.

And Cone saw the loss coming.

“It was not unexpected, our performance tonight,” he said on Friday as he made his way to his hotel room. “As I said, I could see it in practice [that the players were tired]. If I could go to each player and blow energy into each of their mouths, I would. “

And it showed in Game 3. Stanley Pringle had a huge burst of energy early on, scoring five points in the first two minutes after the first tip. He scored a measly six the rest of the way, throwing up two attempts. He finished with 11 points after averaging 29 in the first two starts. The other facets of his performance also dropped notably. From 6.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists in Games 1 and 2 to 4 and 2 in Game 3.

TNT, which needed players to step up for the absent Ray Parks Jr., who is out due to a strained calf and whose status is still uncertain for Game 4, rediscovered one Troy Rosario, whose face had been in flyers “lost” since the playoffs.

Rosario came to life with 15 points and two blocks, making seven of nine attempts from the field before getting philosophical during a post-game television interview.

“It’s like this year, when we started with a difficult situation,” Rosario said in Filipino. “It is like this bubble. We [went through a lot] Before we could get here We really have to keep fighting. “

“I’m glad my shots landed,” added the TNT forward. “I really wanted to assert myself because without Ray, we all have to step up.”

Castro, who had two blocked 3s, a missed free throw and a turnover during the collapse at the end of Game 2, finished with 15 points and 10 assists as he entered big TNT runs that gave the team advantages of up to 22.

“We really learned a lot from our previous games,” Castro said.

But did they really do it? Could the Tropang Giga address the collapse that denied them victories in the first two games? Or could they simply put together an orderly barrier that was too large for a breathless Guinevere squad to melt away?

Perhaps it would be wise to take RR Pogoy’s advice before the 6 p.m. start of Game 4.

“We have to stay stable, especially in the fourth quarter, where we generally tend to crash,” Pogoy said.

Perhaps the big win hardly matters in the big picture. Cone is certainly not sweating defeat, and with good reason.

“In a series, there are no ‘pogi points’ for blowing up a team. You don’t get an extra win that you take out a team. You just get a win, ”Cone said.

“We are not here to win a game, and I say that to the players all the time,” he added. “We are not here to win a game, we are here to win a series.”

“We still have control of this series. They broke the little momentum we have and we’ll see if we can get it back. “

And when it comes to that series, it’s one thing to say that TNT has cut a game from Geneva’s previous 2-0 cushion. It’s another thing to say that the Tropang Giga are as good as the Kings before Game 3.

Only a resounding victory against a team from Geneva that has regained its breath can bridge that gap.

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